Yeah, so reading through all "the sky is falling" diaries in here is enough to make me chuckle through the pain of having the primary process continue past tonight. Like many, I was hoping tonight's results would wrap things up and we could start healing the wounds that have been opened here and within the party in general during another fractious primary season.
But it was not to be. Oh well.
Democracy is messy, and to paraphrase a quip you've doubtless heard, it's the worst possible system for picking leaders - except all the other ways of doing so.
A lot of people support both candidates. The electoral math, which we've all been treated to countless times by now, does not look good for Senator Clinton, as she needed landslide victories to pull even in the pledged delegate count starting today. Though she didn't get those, she did get more popular votes than Senator Obama in three out of four states, so doubtless she'll fight on, and continue to try to seat the delegates from Michigan and Florida (because it's her only real chance of winning without a superdelgate coup).
Again, this isn't the best of all possible worlds, but if it gives more time for the electorate to see how the candidates perform under pressure, and it allows more states to get the party infrastructure building power of the campaigns, it's not all bad.
No one said getting elected President of the United States would be easy. And the race is generating a lot of press and a lot of interest, not just from us savants, but from people who don't normally pay much attention to politics. If you've been paying attention, you know what I'm talking about.
Here's an experiment - wear a button for your candidate for a day, and see how many people talk to you about it. Today, I had seven people ask me about my Obama button. Yesterday, it was three, one of whom I happen to know for a fact hates to talk about politics. Or, er, used to, I suppose. I had to beg off after a few minutes because he is batshit crazy, but still.
So cheer up Democrats! If we can manage to survive seven years of the dubya administration, we can handle a bitterly contested primary, and still have enough in the tank to take down a corrupt septegenerian with a war fetish.